Netflix’s 10/10 Fantasy Series Is The Lord Of The Rings But Bigger

If there was one fantasy franchise synonymous in pop culture with visual scale, sweeping spectacle, and intensely deep lore and worldbuilding, it is The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth established a benchmark for deep fantasy settings, with the full legendarium detailing ancient civilizations, forgotten wars, legendary heroes, languages, religions, and histories that stretch far beyond the story of LOTR.

While Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy managed it, the sense of awe stories set in Middle-earth inspire has been difficult to replicate on the small screen. Even Game of Thrones and Prime Video’s The Rings of Power (despite being set there) struggled to capture the mythic grandeur of Tolkien’s works. Yet a surprising series with vastly different creative roots is emerging as a torchbearer for The Lord of the Rings’ legacy on TV. It may be a manga adaptation, but Netflix’s live-action One Piece hits many of the notes that made LOTR epic.

Netflix’s One Piece is the live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s long-running manga, following Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and his crew as they pursue the legendary One Piece treasure across a world of mystical kingdoms, superpowered pirates, and supernatural wonder. At first, it seems a world away from Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings, but beneath the surface, One Piece has spiritual kinship with them. Since the manga debuted in 1997, it has accumulated decades of history that culminate in a distinct identity, but it shares the beating heart that makes Tolkien’s foundational fantasy setting timeless.

The Worldbuilding Of One Piece Makes Middle-earth Seem Tiny

Courtesy of Netflix

The sheer scale of One Piece’s worldbuilding is difficult to comprehend. The collected legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien remains one of the most extensive worlds in literary fantasy, encompassing The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and decades of additional writings. Yet Oda’s saga has grown into something even larger in the almost-three decades since it debuted, with the manga now surpassing 1,100 chapters.

That enormous length has allowed One Piece to populate its world with more than 1,000 named characters, many possessing detailed histories, motivations, and connections to events far outside the main narrative. Its dozens of nations and kingdoms have their own political structures, cultures, histories, and visual identities. The story also gradually reveals a recorded world history stretching back thousands of years.

The result is a setting packed with so many fantasy races, legendary creatures, and supernatural marvels that it dwarfs the world of The Lord of the Rings in scale. Even including works like The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales that significantly expand the scope of Tolkien’s world, Eichiro Oda’s One Piece is more vast. Middle-earth will always be considered one of the richest and deepest settings in fantasy fiction, but One Piece has organically expanded for decades and continues to grow. In sheer size, Oda’s world is simply bigger.

There’s A Lot Of Overlap Between One Piece And The Lord Of The Rings

Courtesy of Netflix

Saying that One Piece has surpassed Middle-earth in scale is not a criticism of Tolkien or The Lord of the Rings. The comparison highlights something easy to overlook because One Piece comes from manga rather than traditional swords-and-sorcery fantasy: it will appeal strongly to Tolkien fans. What’s more, Netflix’s live-action One Piece is also an unusually accessible entry point for anyone skeptical of anime or manga.

That matters because The Lord of the Rings and One Piece share surprisingly similar thematic foundations. Both take place in fragile presents shaped by mythic pasts, with characters gradually discovering how history has created the world they inhabit. Ancient wars, forgotten civilizations, legendary figures, and suppressed truths continue to influence the present. For both Luffy and Frodo, the past is not simply an inconsequential backstory for the world around them. It is an active force that determines the political and moral conflicts of their adventures in the present.

Both also examine the corrupting nature of power and the consequences of allowing a small number of individuals to dominate everyone else. Against those forces, neither One Piece nor The Lord of the Rings suggests that overwhelming strength is the only answer. For both J.R.R. Tolkien and Eiichiro Oda, it’s seemingly small acts of decency that repeatedly become the foundations for resisting tyranny and oppression.

One Piece may be brighter, more colorful, and considerably wackier than The Lord of the Rings or Tolkien’s other writings, but beneath its wildly different aesthetic is a remarkably familiar epic-fantasy heart. It is the spiritual successor to Middle-earth that many Tolkien fans never knew they were looking for, and the live-action adaptation on Netflix is the perfect gateway.

Release Date

August 31, 2023

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Matt Owens, Steven Maeda, Joe Tracz

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  Iñaki Godoy

  Monkey D. Luffy

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